About UK, Navy Lists, 1888-1970

This database includes multiple volumes of the Navy List, the Royal Navy’s official published list of officers.

Published regularly since 1814, the Navy List is a good starting place for researching the career of an officer in the Royal Navy, Royal Marines, Queen Alexandra’s Royal Nursing Service, Coast Guard, and other naval entities. The list includes both commissioned and warrant officers, and along with names, lists can indicate rank, seniority, decorations, and other details.

The Navy List includes numerous groupings. For example, officers are grouped by rank. These include admirals, commanders, captains, lieutenants, chaplains, carpenters, boatswains, artificer engineers, gunners, surgeons, and others. There are also lists of ships with their officers and current stations, as well as lists of pensioners and retired officers.

Organizations and items included among list lists varied over time. In the volumes in this database, you will find officers in the Royal Naval Reserve (RNR—including the New Zealand Branch) and Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve (RNVR—including the South African Division), the Royal Naval School of Music, the Royal Humane Society medal roll (where you may find enlisted men included), as well as lists of clerks, schoolmasters, civilian dental surgeons, warrant writers, warrant armorers, head schoolmasters, head stewards, and others. You will also find regulations, members of boards, vessels for sale, and hundreds of other details related to life and service in the Royal Navy.

Related data collections

This database contains the Medal Rolls Index, or Medal Index Cards. The collection currently contains approximately 4.8 million people, which is nearly all of the total collection. The records can be searched by first and last name and Corps, Unit or Regiment. These cards were created by the Army Medal Office (AMO) of the United Kingdom in Droitwich near the close of World War I (WWI).

This database contains service records of non-commissioned officers and other ranks who were discharged from the Army and claimed disability pensions for service in WWI. These were also men who did not re-enlist in the Army prior to World War II. The type of information contained in these records includes: name of solider, age, birthplace, occupation, marital status, and regiment number.All Military in the Card Catalogue